Choi re-enlisting

More than two years after former infantry officer Daniel Choi came out on a talk show as a gay service member – an event that led to his discharge - the Iraq war veteran says he will re-enlist in the U.S. Army following Tuesday’s repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

“Going back to the military will be a vindication,” Choi told POLITICO. [I’m] going back because I fought to go back. The seriousness of our claims was not just political theatre – it was really drawn from our lives. I sacrificed so much so I could go back.”

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In October 2010, he attempted to rejoin the U.S. Army, but has gone back and forth since then. Choi has scheduled appointment with a military recruiter to talk about joining the Army Reserves later this week.

Choi became a gay rights icon after the West Point grad told television host Rachel Maddow that he was gay back in March 2009. His resulting military discharge galvanized opposition to DADT, which allowed for gay individuals to be removed from service. Choi’s activism led to trouble with the law, and he was later arrested for chaining himself to the White House fence during a protest.

Choi said that he had been unsure about whether he should reenlist but eventually concluded that it was important to show the seriousness of his actions. “Joining the military is never supposed to be a comfortable thing,” Choi said.

Choi is not yet sure what his role in the Army will be. His responsibilities will be determined “as they say, by ‘the needs of the Army’,” he told POLITICO. “No matter what you choose, even if you have a degree in Arabic. You do whatever the military wants you to do on a day-to-day basis.”

Meanwhile, Choi says that although he is happy with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – after all, it allows him to reenlist – the victory is incomplete, something that he doesn’t think is well understood.

“There is time for some well-intended criticism here – the parties that have been going on. I think they misrepresent the meaning of this event. People who believe that discrimination is somehow all erased will have a rude awakening,” says Choi, pointing out that same-sex spouses will not be extended benefits by the military.

The discrimination, Choi says, will continue in more subtle, non-legal ways. “We have to recognize that just because black and white people sat together at a lunch counter, it doesn’t mean that there was no racism. Just because we abolish some of the legal discrimination, it does not mean that all of the animosity is going to end,” he says.

Choi is a graduate of the West Point military academy, where he studied Arabic and environmental engineering. He served as an infantry officer during the Iraq war and in 2008 joined the New York National Guard.

After his discharged, Choi responded with an open letter to President Barack Obama, which said it came as “a slap in the face to me. It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers.”

His widely-covered ordeal made him a star in the gay rights movement. But he says his reenlistment will be for those who weren’t fortunate enough to have the kind of spotlight that he did. “Not everyone is lucky enough to come out on the Rachel Maddow Show,” he said.